A mum blogging about family life and the hilarity of parenthood.

Babies, biscuits and books: #3

Welcome to the third instalment in my book series. Last time I said I was thinking about doing one of these every week but I soon realised (with the help of a fellow blogger) that as I usually only write one or two posts a week my blog would very quickly become primarily about books and it could get very dull! So as library books have a three week borrowing time perhaps I should aim for every 3 weeks?! I am really enjoying this series and reading about everyone’s favourite stories – it’s lovely to hear that there are so many book lovers and mini bookworms out there.

Just a little note before we start – the pictures aren’t wonderful (even less wonderful than the previous two!) as TM doesn’t usually want to sit still. He tried to actually climb on top of some of the books, bizarrely. Obviously when we read at night in bed he will sit and look at the books but when I try to engage during the day and take pictures he isn’t having any of it. And my house is a mess, which you can see in most of the photos. Oh and he’s (almost) naked in a few of them because our house hasn’t been below 26 degrees for about two weeks! Lucky I’m not trying to be a fancy lifestyle blogger with beautiful photos, isn’t it?

Dear Zoo (written by Rod Campbell and published by Penguin Books Ltd) is a Puffin Lift-the-Flap book which is great fun for little ones to lift the flaps and discover different animals. A little boy asks for a pet from the zoo and is sent a series of wild animals which won’t work for various reasons; until they finally get it just right and send him a puppy! This was actually brought out in 1985 so must have been around when I was a child but I don’t remember it. It’s a sweet, interactive book and there aren’t too many words to read which means children can get on with the fun of lifting the flaps to see what gifts the zoo have sent. TM seems to be enjoying the concept of revealing the pictures now and I like exuberantly telling him why each animal is not an acceptable pet!

Biscuits consumed while reading Dear Zoo: 1 malted milk (which I allowed my son to have a few licks of).

First 100 Animals (Make Believe Ideas) was given to us by my mum as part of a little set. It features lots of actual photos of animals accompanied with their names and is a really bright and educational book. The animals are grouped into sections like ‘farm animals’, ‘creepy crawlies’ etc and at the back there are even some pages which incorporate activities – like the one pictured where kids have to try and match up the animals with their mum. It has got some slightly strange choices for the first 100 animals and I’m fairly sure it’s not entirely accurate to say that a butterfly is a caterpillar’s mum!? It’s really great for little ones to look at though as it’s so colourful and engaging and as TM gets a bit older it will be great for helping to teach him about animals.

Now here is a book that I am sure you are all familiar with… The Gruffalo (written by Julia Donaldson and Axel Sheffler, published by Pan Macmillan) has become a modern classic and you can’t go into many children’s clothes or toy shops without seeing some kind of Gruffalo merchandise! We have the board book version and it was a gift at my baby shower. It’s a truly wonderful book, it is such a joy to read aloud and the illustrations are stunning. Frankly, I can’t believe I have got to the third of these posts before including a Julia Donaldson book, she’s a genius! I don’t think I need to bang on about The Gruffalo as I am certain most of you have read it already so I will simply say TM loves the pictures and it’s great fun to read (I am partial to doing all the different voices!).

Biscuits consumed while reading First 100 Animals & The Gruffalo: 1 chocolate hobnob eaten stealthily in tiny bites while TM was distracted by the pictures.

Lastly, we got this from the library: the DK Touch and Feel Dinosaur book (published by Darling Kindersley Ltd). They’ve used photo-style images (I am sure there’s a much better way of describing this but I’m not sure how, sorry…!) of dinosaurs in this book and each dinosaur has a textured part to encourage sensory learning. The sticky tongue of the T Rex was not so sticky after however many years of library use but the images are amazing – dare I say it, some of them are a little scary?! It’s a brilliant book for babies because of the added textures and it’s chunky size makes it resilient to eager little hands. Once kids are a little older it could be an educational tool to teach them about dinosaurs, too. I am a big fan of the DK Touch and Feel books; we talked about the Farm one in our first book post and I think they are fab for little ones. Although I didn’t manage to get many pictures as TM was trying to climb OVER the book, he seemed to really love the pictures and touching all the different materials.

Biscuits consumed while reading the dinosaur book: 1 giant chocolate chunk shortbread that I ate while hiding behind a different book.

Avid readers may have noticed that my biscuit tally is woefully depleted compared to the last book post. This is a sad admission; I can no longer eat biscuits freely while TM is awake. He will not let me eat anything without, essentially, begging at my knees for me to share it with him. As I don’t really fancy him developing my junk food addiction at the tender age of 8 months I am having to sneakily eat my snacks in various tried-and-tested ways (hiding behind the open fridge door) or wait until he is in bed. I mean, I’m not a saint so I do actually let him have a little bit of biscuit occasionally but only the boring plain ones. I will valiantly attempt to continue eating biscuits while we look at books but I am not sure how long I can sustain it for…

Oh Ed, it’s very sad times when a malted milk gets some airplay! Love your book choices though. We have a variation of the dinosaur jobber that is way too babyish for my 3 year old but she likes making the noises (!). And Dear Zoo is a special one because I used to have it when I was a girl, I LOVE the ones that stand the test of time. This is not age appropriate but you should do the Jolly Postman….aaah, sweet nostalgia. Moose xxx #Dreamteam

Moose there is a chance we’ve had this conversation before but I LOVE THE JOLLY POSTMAN! It was my fave as a child and I still had my copy, and my parents bought it at my baby shower for Bloblet (as TM was known at that point).

Love the thought of Mouse making dino noises and that you had dear zoo when you were younger, how sweet! I know it’s very sad about my biscuit situation 😭 Thanks for stopping by my lovely! Ed xxx

I know haha 😂 It’s because when we were younger somehow it came about that my brother was Blob, Dad was Big Blob and I was Little Blob – so when we were trying to think of a way of referring to our unborn foetus that we didn’t know the sex of Bloblet just made sense to me !! X

Dear Zoo is one of our favorites as well. It has quickly made it’s way into our regular bedtime rotation. I will have to check the other ones out. There is just something about books about animals that my little bear seems to love. #DreamTeam #TribalLove

Dear Zoo is THE book here and I have been reading that one every night for the past 4 months, despite trying to introduce others. Love the dinosaur one too, I need to get myself down to the local library so we can add a bit of variety into our book collection. I am with you re snacking in secret, it’s the only way now as she wants to eat everything…it’s even worse now she’s literally running everywhere and has caught me a few times with a Jaffa in hand! Thanks for linking up to the #dreamteam Great to have you xx

Oh bless her! I think the combination of lifting flaps and animals is a big win with the little ones. Haha I love the image of you caught red- handed with a Jaffa cake 😂 Thanks for having me and for reading, Ellen xx

Dear Zoo is a bit of a classic! Jet’s new teacher read it at one of his stay and plays at his new school, and he launched into a monologue about how “we have two of those books at home, and on the page with the lion, my little sister has ripped the flap.” I am sure everyone else in the class was totally fascinated!
Climbing over books whilst your mum eats biscuits sounds like a great way to spend time when you are 8 months 🙂
x Alice
#fartglitter

Ahh how sweet!! I love the stories kids share. Haha that’s a nice way of looking at it, I bet TM would have enjoyed it even more if I had shared all of the biscuits with him wouldn’t he?! Thanks for reading, Ellen x

I know what you mean about having to hide your junk food! The Popple wants to eat whatever I’m eating, so I can no longer sneak a snack in front of her.

I love the Gruffalo – we really need to get our own copy. The Popple’s favourite book currently is called Global Babies – it has photos of babies from all over the world. She brings it over at least half a dozen times a day for me or Adrian to read to her. Her favourite page is one where a baby is sticking his tongue out – she makes a raspberry at him and it’s ADORABLE. #fartglitter

It’s sad isn’t it?! Now I binge on junk at night 😂
Oh that book sounds gorgeous!! How sweet ❤️❤️ If you like Julia Donaldson I just bought a really good set which includes The Gruffalo from The Book People, only £12 for about 10 books or something and it has a little gruffalo bag too. Really good value. Thanks for reading lovely, Ellen x

OK so I love these books! (I can actually recite The Gruffalo now off by heart I’ve read it so often) and the Dinosaur one looks really cool! However I’m even more fascinated by your stealth biscuit snaffling whilst reading them!! You are like my very own superhero and everything. I like that care and attention is paid to ensure that the correct biscuit is selected to best accompany the literature, and the idea of your scoffing them whilst trying to hide behind pages makes me instantly want to be your BFF. Thanks for sharing with #fartglitter lovely x

Oh Dawn you’re too kind – a superhero!! Think that’s the best thing anyone’s ever said to me 😂 I wanted to be your BFF pretty much the first time I read your blog so this is wonderful news ❤️ Thanks for reading and for having me my lovely, Ellen